About the brain

Changes in a person's behaviour can be a sign of damage to certain areas of the brain.

Visit our interactive Brain Tour to see how the brain works and how it is affected by Alzheimer’s.

Below are descriptions of what each area of the brain does and how damage to that area can cause specific changes.

Limbic system

Affected early in Alzheimer's disease

Involved with memory and emotion

Links the lobes of the brain, enabling them to connect behaviour with memories

Controls emotion and basic needs (such as sleeping and eating)

Changes that may be seen:

Difficulty finding objects and remembering where they were placed

Suspiciousness

Irritability, depression or anxiety

Hippocampus and temporal lobes

Hippocampus: where verbal and visual memory are processed (verbal memories are words - memories related to what we read or say or hear; visual memory lets us recognize objects, faces and places to guide us around our environment)

Temporal lobes: control new learning and short-term memory

Changes that may be seen:

Inability to retain memory of the recent past

Living in the present moment

Loss of vocabulary

Inability to recognize familiar faces, objects or places

Parietal lobes

Put activities in a sequence (such as putting clothes on in the right order, using tools or performing tasks that require a logical sequence, such as starting and driving a car)

Control our ability to understand spatial information (such as where we are in a specific environment, and where other objects are)

Changes that may be seen:

The problems will vary depending on whether the left or right side of the brain is affected.

Using words incorrectly

Difficulty in understanding what others say

Speaking in general terms rather than specifically

Inability to express thoughts clearly in writing

Difficulty handling bank accounts or paying bills

Getting lost easily

Difficulty putting on clothing

Balance and gait difficulties

Frontal lobe

Initiates activity, and lets us plan and organize our actions

Regulates our social judgment and behaviour (such as knowing what behaviour is appropriate to a situation, interpreting the feelings of other people and monitoring our own actions)

Changes that may be seen:

The person appears apathetic, uninterested

Stops hobbies or other activities previously enjoyed

Quickly loses interest in an activity, seems content to sit, does not respond to others

Withdraws from others

Is unable to stop an activity, repeating it over and over

Occipital lobe

Controls vision, and the ability to see and combine colours, shapes, angles and movement into meaningful patterns

Changes that may be seen:

Although the occipital lobe is not usually directly involved in Alzheimer's disease, the surrounding visual areas that allow us to put the elements of vision together can be affected, which leads to unusual perceptual difficulties, such as loss of depth vision or inability to see movement.